HOUGHTON - The Ojibwa Eagles used five first-period goals to catapult their way to a 9-3 victory Friday afternoon against the Thunder Bay Kings in Northern Lakes Hockey League action.

"Our puck movement was good, we had some good offensive pressure on the forecheck and we locked it up in the defensive zone," Eagles assistant coach Mike Lowery said.

The Eagles jumped out to a quick lead when Jordan Peters scored with assists from Carson Omilusik and Levi Erkkila, but the visiting Kings came right back with a goal from Royce King two minutes later.

After more back-and-forth hockey, Calumet natives Ben Johnson and Erkkila scored back-to-back goals within a minute of each other. Thunder Bay scored a rebound goal to cut the lead in half, but Michael Gullan and Alex Roy scored 14 seconds apart to blow the game wide open.

That wasn't enough for the Eagles. On Oct. 17, the Eagles had two three-goal leads disappear when these two teams met in Thunder Bay, so the Eagles kept the pressure up. Three minutes after Thunder Bay's King scored, Erkkila gave the Eagles back the three-goal lead.

"We've been working on burying the puck a lot more," Lowery said. "There's been times where we've been in close games or had the chance to bury a team and we haven't."

This time the Eagles did. Roy, Johnson and Robbie Payne all scored in the third period as the Eagles coasted to a 2-1-1 record in NLHL play.

Goaltender Josh Hendrickson stopped 26 shots in the victory, including several point-blank shots and a pair of nifty one-timers that kept the Eagles ahead in the second period.

Another bright spot for the Eagles was Erkkila, one of three players to finish the game with two goals and one assist (the other two were Johnson and Roy). Erkkila is now tied for the league lead in goals with five, in just four games.

"Erkkila came in as a very young player, not even midget age yet," Lowery said. "He's worked hard since day one and it's been showing immediately in these games."

The Eagles play today at 8 a.m. against the NLHL's top team, the Capital Centre Pride, for the first game of the Superior Cup. At 9:30, the Marquette Electricians will play the Kings at the Calumet Colosseum, and the action will resume again at 4 p.m. with the Kings playing the Pride followed at 6 p.m. with the Eagles playing Marquette. Both games will be at the Colosseum.

The round-robin tournament will finish with two games Sunday, the first a 10 a.m. meeting between the Eagles and Kings, then a noon game featuring Marquette and the Pride, both of which will be played at the SDC.

Michael H. Babcock can be reached at mbabcock@mininggazette. com.